“Last Tuesday, for the second time in a month, Diaz de la Portilla broke with his party’s traditional fealty to the NRA and single-handedly denied the organization a vote on a top legislative priority,” Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun agitators at The Trace report. “The first bill he buried in late January, would have allowed concealed carry permit holders to bring their handguns onto state college campuses. The second would have granted licensed gun owners the right to openly carry their weapons in public.” What else needs saying? Just this, from the horse’s…mouth . . .
“There is no question that the NRA is a powerful lobby that intimidates a number of Republican lawmakers. But we should stand up for what we think is right,” Diaz de la Portilla tells The Trace. “You’d be surprised by the number of Republican lawmakers from both chambers who thanked me. They said they were glad they wouldn’t have to make that tough decision.”
I’d dearly love to know the names of these Republican lawmakers who supported Diaz de la Portilla’s fight to stymie Floridians’ natural, civil and Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. There will be a reckoning . . .
Diaz de la Portilla is up for re-election this year. If he loses to a Democratic challenger, that might clear the way for both bills to finally become law, since no one will be there to block it from heading to the floor for a vote. And if he wins, he may still lose his chair. During the 2017 session there will be a new Senate President, a Republican named Joe Negron. He can appoint someone else to lead the committee, which could remove the last line of defense between the two bills and a vote. Either possibility raises serious concerns for the opposition.
Democrats oppose firearms freedom. But so do some powerful Republicans. They should be removed from office. Meanwhile, let this be a warning to us all.